Certification Advice and Tools that Develop Real Cisco® Skills
 
Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Cisco positions the Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA) certification as the second tier in Cisco’s certification pyramid. However, CCNA, not CCENT, serves as the prerequisite for most of the other Cisco certifications, including the CCNA Concentrations, CCNP, CCIP, CCSP, CCVP, and CCNP Wireless. As a result, CCNA remains the most popular Cisco certification.

 

Cisco offers two paths to CCNA: A single exam or 2 exams. The two exam path matches the authorized Cisco courses of the same name (ICND1 and ICND2). The one exam path, using the CCNA exam, covers the same material, just in a single comprehensive exam.

 A Brief History of CCNA

 

1998: CCNA offered for the first time

 

2000: CCNA revised, still 1-exam only

 

2002: CCNA revised, still 1-exam only

 

2003: CCNA revised; added two-exam path; no CCENT

 

2007: CCNA revised; CCENT introduced

 

 Who Chooses CCNA?

 

Who Goes for CCNA as the end goal? Some examples:

 

  • Any technical person working for a Cisco partner
     
  • Second-year Cisco Networking Academy Students
     
  • College students
     
  • First-level and second level IT support
     
  • Network engineers

 

 

 Beyond CCNA as the Goal

 

Who plans to go beyond CCNA?

 

  • Anyone working for a Cisco partner
     
  • Future network engineers and designers
     
  • 3rd level network support

 

 
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